One of the cutest things in the en-ti-re world is Sasha lying on her belly in the driveway talking to ants. If you ask what she's doing, she holds out her hand and says, "Ant - hand"; and often enough there is in fact an ant crawling on her hand. Or smooshed between her fingers.
Billions and billions of ants live in our yard. They like the ponderosa trees. Ours are all black ants, but biting red ants live in the park at the end of the street. I suspect red ants need the drier, dustier soil found there.
Anyway. You remember that my kids had a "pet" daddy long-leg in the bathroom, right? Well, the other day they found a spider outside and chased it around our neighbor's driveway. That spider was so large I could see it from 100 feet away. I don't know what kind it was but it sure scared me, and I told the kids to leave it alone.
That night, my husband and I explained that some spiders living in Central Oregon -- black widows for example -- are filled with poison, and if they bite you, they'll make you very, very sick. It was a one-way conversation, as conversations with Blake often are; but the next day I heard a loud STOMP, and Blake explained, "It's OK, Mom. That spider was filled with poison."
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A cartoon in the last New Yorker showed two people in a tree with a bear below it, staring up hungrily. One person says to the other, "You tell him how much money we donated!" This made me laugh so hard...
I'm not trying to teach the kids to "love" nature. Nature isn't some cute, cuddly creature that exists out there; it's not a fascinating weather event watched on TV. Climbing a mountain isn't a quick jaunt undertaken lightly. This world demands admiration and respect.
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